Against the Tide - A New Elysium Story [Complete]

Crash, Burn, Repeat

In a split second, all the heat in her body had been replaced by cold, blank horror. She turned around slowly, and found her worst suspicion confirmed.

"Cyril?! What-"

She could tell that his cheeks were probably about as flushed as her own, despite the fact that the transmitted video feed was tinted green. The flickering images and low resolution did not manage to hide the fact that he was very flustered indeed.

"Amy. We need to talk. In private," his voice resounded from the speakers, electronically distorted.

"That's sweet, but we were kinda talking in private here too, so, first come first serve, buddy," Nova chimed in, sounding oddly calm and composed about the situation.

"This is certainly more important than whatever the hell it was that you were doing there right now," Cyril snapped at him.

"Really now. Do I have to spell it out for you, what it was that we were doing?" Nova scoffed, pulling her into a tight embrace and glaring at Cyril over her head.

"Stop it! Both of you!" Null snapped.

She finally managed to snap out of her shock-induced paralysis, and shoved Nova away to climb off the control panel. As she turned around to face the projected image of Cyril fully, he threw her an odd look. It took her a second to realize that considering the layout of the video communication terminal it was most likely directed well below her face.

His gaze lingered there a bit longer than could still be considered accidental. Which was strange considering the man had probably seen her fully naked countless times during the numerous surgeries he had performed on her. But somehow, being before him in her bra right now and with him looking at her like that, she felt an odd mixture of anger and dreadful embarrassment. But her top had landed somewhere on the floor out of reach, and her urge to reach for it lost out against her urge to stay where she was and at least partially block Cyril's view on Nova's half naked body.

Nobody moved and an awkward silence descended. She stared back at the image of Cyril's face on the screen before her, her mind completely blank.

What should I say? What should I do? Lars, HELP! She yelled his name inside their mind.

Wow, he returned to her side slowly and lazily, as if he was getting up after a long nap, Now this... this is what I'd call awkward.

Not helpful! She snapped at him.

"So who's that guy, Pirate Queen, and why does he look like he wants to murder me?" Nova whispered close to her ear suddenly,  "Overprotective big brother? Stalker ex?"

He stood directly behind her back and put his arms around her to embrace her from behind as he spoke.

"He's my doctor..." she explained and shrugged off Nova's hands again.

"NC, to be precise," Cyril added icily.

She could feel Nova freeze up behind her.

"So that's how you...? I thought... they were all gone," he muttered in disbelief.

Everybody thought that there were no neuro-cyberneticists left. They were all presumed dead or retired, unable to practice after having been stripped and due to lack of hardware to work with. These days, only overly confident nano-engineers or very brave medical doctors attempted their hand at neuro-cybernetics, in places like Six and other rogue colonies - usually with moderate success at best.

Until they had found out about Blake and the Butcher, Null had thought the same. NCs had been among the first to be rounded up and stripped during the Purge. Some had refused, and had been killed. The rest had been hunted down relentlessly by the very organization whose headquarters they had blown to hell several hours ago.